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The Fight For the Internet Continues -- Could CISPA be the Next SOPA?

A wave of protest may have derailed SOPA and PIPA a few months ago, but it appears that Internet activists are far from done fighting over the Internet. A new bill has people worried about government involvement with the Internet, and opposition is beginning to build.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, introduced by Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D – Md.), takes a different tack towards an attempt to bring something like order to the wilds of the Internet. It’s about defending companies and governments from cyber attacks and theft by changing how classified information is shared between private companies and the government.

“Every day US businesses are targeted by nation-state actors like China for cyber exploitation and theft. This consistent and extensive cyber looting results in huge losses of valuable intellectual property, sensitive information and American jobs. The broad base of support for this bill shows that Congress recognizes the urgent need to help our private sector better defend itself from these insidious attacks,” said Rogers in a statement published on his website.

The Center for Democracy and Technology outlines a few main concerns with the legislation – it says that broad legislation could allow for essentially unlimited sharing of information, and that it is likely to transfer more control of cybersecurity efforts from civilians to the military. Rogers might call out state actors, but groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are worried that the language is broad enough to be used against sites like WikiLeaks.

CISPA includes an exemption of liability granted to those firms taking part in CISPA’s information exchanges — possibly freeing tech firms from the responsibility of regulating users and the danger of being taken offline for alleged copyright violations — so long as they get approval from the government, actively divulge cyber-threat intelligence concerns and are “acting in good faith.”

Activists are already starting to drum up opposition through some of the usual channels, such as Twitter and Reddit. As of this writing, 569,430 people have signed a petition at Avaaz.org. But while opponents enjoyed the support of more or less every major technology corporation in the fight over SOPA, companies like Facebook, Verizon, Microsoft and Intel have already publicly come out in support of the bill.

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